Due to the increase of surplus scrap tires and the rapid decrease of available landfill space and other storage areas, many new uses for scrap tires are being developed. One example of such a new use is demonstrated within U.S. Pat. No. 7,007,634, wherein large, over-the-road tires are converted into automated livestock troughs. Part of the conversion process involves cutting the scrap tire through its tread portion along a plane that is generally parallel with a sidewall of the scrap tire. FIG. 6 depicts such an over-the-road tire that has been cut through its tread portion. FIG. 7 depicts that same over-the-road tire after the top portion of the tire has been separated from the bottom portion. By cutting the scrap tire in this manner, two separate troughs, feeders or other useful products can be formed. Unfortunately, the prior art has failed to provide an automated cutting apparatus capable of cleanly and efficiently cutting large, over-the-road tires in this manner.
Common prior art tire cutters typically involve a platform that supports and rotates the scrap tire with respect to a rotating cutting blade. Such a design is clearly impractical when the scrap tire to be cut is a large over-the-road tire. Other tire cutting systems support the tire and use a fixed or rotating blade to cut repeatedly from one sidewall to the other until the tire is effectively cut into a plurality of separate sections. Again, while useful for many recycling purposes, such tire cutting systems fail to address the specific needs of cutting scrap tires through their tread portions to produce useable devices, such as depicted in FIG. 7.
Accordingly, what is needed is a novel tire cutting apparatus and method of using the same that are capable of cleanly and efficiently cutting large, over-the-road tires through their tread portion, along a plane that is generally parallel with a sidewall of the tire. Such a system, however, must be relatively simple to operate and function in a manner that does not require rotation of the tire with respect to a cutting blade.